THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



51 



acre say they care not if the ground be | and army, all our other principal exports Irom ag- 

 Dckv'or even if it be sandy and sterile, riculturc, as well as from the forest and the sea, 

 n obtain plenty of manure to feed it. hnve remained stationary or declined during the 



lars to the 



hard and roc 



so tliiy can obtain plenty 



The niateri;ilfor improved cultivation will be found 



in any part of our country upon and near it; and 



most old land in New England may be doubled and 



trebled in value by laying out a much less sum in 



its renovation than its present value. 



Imports and Exports of the United States. 



Accompanyini; the report of the Secretary of the 

 Treasury of tlie United States to Congress, are ta- 

 bles of the imports and exports of the United States 

 from tlie year 17:10 to ]8o8, exhibiting in separate 

 columns, "total value of imports — value retaiijed in 

 the country for consumption — the quantity of each 

 article — the country from which they were import- 

 ed, and the State or territory into which they were 

 imported : t.f the exports, the total value— tlie val- 

 ue of those of domestic origin — of foreign origin — 

 the value of each article exported — the State or 

 territory from which the export was made — the for- 

 eign country, and tlie amount to each exported. 



'These tables do credit to the industry of a hand 

 that never tires, who has been for the last few 

 years at the head of tlie Treasury. They are ne- 

 cessarilv imperfect and conjectural in some instan- 

 ces, and in early years, because the aggregate im- 

 ports not being specified by law, depend upon the 

 estimates of diflcrent persons, and because prior to 

 the yenr 1S03 the exports were not regularly dis- 

 tinguished in the returns as to the quantity and 

 value of the different articles, and these depend up- 

 on estimates which may be erroneous. 



Of the results noticed by the Secretary in the ar- 

 ticle extracted below, we would call the attention 

 of farmers who pay the expenses of the govern- 

 ment through the taxes of the custom house to two 

 or three prominonl facts ; 



1. The great article of cotton whose export has 

 risen from merely nothing to a sum greater than 

 all other ex])ortcd articles put together — amounting 

 to sixty or seventy millions of dollars in a year — 

 has been swelled to its present amount without a- 

 ny protective duty whatover. 



2. The imported manufactures of leather from 

 the State of Massachusetts, an article never thought 

 of as asking a protecting duty — exceed in value «» 

 the manufactures of cotton and woollen exported 

 from the country, which have been for the last 

 twenty-five years the articles crying aloud for pro- 

 tection. 



3. The imports of woollens, in the face ot the 

 high duly which imposes a tax of from four to 

 eight dol'lars (including profit) upon every broad 

 cloth coat made of imported cloth, has increased 

 during the last twenty years from an average of 

 seven to twelve millions of dollars in the year. 



We cannot do the farmers a better service than 

 to show hov>', where and in what this country has 

 grown, and in what depreciated in the following 

 deductions from tlie course of produetion and trade 

 at different times : 



"It appears that the whole imports have not more 

 than doubled since the first four years of the Gov- 

 ernment, while the exports of domestic produce 

 have quite quadrupled. 



"Again : Though we formerly exported more ot 

 the foreign merchandise imported than we now do, 

 yet the consumption of it, since tho.se earlicstyears, 

 has not increased much over a hundred per cent. 



last, forty years 



"For example : Those of tobocco, ranging near 

 six and seven millions; flour at about four millions; 

 lumber at two and three millions; rice from one to 

 three millions; pork at a million and a half; and fius 

 at nearly three quarters of a million; have remain- 

 ed almost stationary. While the exports of fish 

 have actually fallen from one and two millions, to 

 less than one; of beef from one million to half a 

 million; and of butter and cheese, from one halfto 

 one ninth of a million. Indeed the only material 

 increase in any of the important articles of export, 

 besides raw cotton, has been in domestic manufac- 

 tures. These, from one million in 1793, have aug- 

 mented to more than eight millions in 1838. 



"So great have been the changes in someofthem, 

 affecting to a certain degree the aggregate export- 

 ed, that''in the single Stale of Massachusetts, slill_ 

 distinguished for its fisheries and manufactures of 

 cotton^'and woollen, the fabrics from leather, hum- 

 ble as they may seem in character, now yearly ex- 

 ceed in value either of those or any other of its 

 great articles of production, and equal nearly one- 

 fourth of the immense exports of raw cotton from 

 the whole Union. • 



"These results show the strong direction which 

 industry often takes from natural causes, such as 

 soil and climate, as well as from habits and other 

 peculiarities whether accompanied or not by spe- 

 cinl legislative protection. 



"This circumstance is further illustrated by some 

 of the changes in the principal articles of import. 

 During many years, the demand for those made 

 from cotton has been very great. By means of tlie 

 increased public taste for their use, and the reduc- 

 ed price of them through improvements in the ma- 

 chinery, the imports of cotton manufactures have 

 generally been larger than those of any other ar- 

 ticle. 



"On an average they were eleven millions annu- 

 ally, for the last three years; and in 1836, they 

 reached seventeen millions notwithstanding all the 

 flourishing establishments for those manufactures 

 here, and their success to such an extent, that con- 

 siderable amounts of the domestic fabric have long 

 been exported. 



"The imports of silk were formerly smaller m 

 amount than those of cotton, and in 1821 and 1822, 

 only four to six millions yearly. But of late, some 

 of them having been oxempted from duty by Con- 

 gress, and others more recently having become free 

 liy means of judicial constructions, and the demand 

 for all of them having been also quickened perhaps 

 by the progress of luxury, those imports increased 

 in 1836, to twenty -two millions, and during the last 

 three years, have been, on an average, quite twelve 

 millions and a half. 



"Specie stands next in the list, the imports of it 

 having, in the same period, been enlarged from 

 three and five millions, to aboul twelve yearly; and 

 those of coffee, from four and five millions to eight, 

 though considerable portions of these are as form- 

 erly re-exported. 



"The imports of woolljins have also in the face 

 of a high duty, and an increasing manufacture of 

 them at home, continued to be nearly seven mil- 

 lions annually, for the last twenty years ; and in 

 183(3, they rose to twelve millions. 



But it is worthy of special notice, that with a 



while our population has, within the same period,] population to clothe augmented since 1821, quite 



increased quite four hundred per cent 



"This disparity has arisen chiefly from the facts, 

 that larger proportions of our people are now in- 

 gaged in the manufactures and agriculture, and 

 supply much more than they once did, the pro- 

 ducts" of both for home consumption. For one se- 

 ries of three years, about a tliird of a century ago, 

 and another about twenty years ago, the imports 

 were nearly as large as during the la-st three years. 

 "The clianges in the amount of some of the lead- 

 ing- articles bfith of export and import have been 

 ve'i-y extraordinary. As to the first, the exports ot 

 raw" cotton, witho'ut reference to the increased con- 

 sumption of it at home, have altered most. They 

 have augmented from a few thousand dollars worth 

 to sixty or seventy millions. This vast increase has 

 happened without any real aid from a duty, winch 

 should be regarded as protective, but cliiefly by 

 means of a congenialsoil and climate, assisted bv a 

 remarkable improvement in preparing cottim lor 

 market, which has proved to be one of the most 

 fortunate inventions on any subject in any age- 

 By the lani-er capital and population devoted to the 

 cultivation of this great staple, and by the increas- 

 ed domestic demand lor other articles of our own 

 production, to feed and clothe the greater numbers 

 employed in its cultivation, and in many flounsh- 

 ng manufactures, as well as in an enlarged navy 



seventy-five per cent., the great imports of cotton 

 and woollen have augmented but little. And if 

 those of silk have increased tlirre or four fold in a- 

 mount, yet such is the enlarged demand for them, 

 and the extended facilities for producing them here 

 on a small capital, that without the aid of any leg- 

 islative protection in most cases, indications exist, 

 that the growth and manufacture of silk may be es- 

 tablished in this country, wider and deeper than a- 

 ny former article under the highest laritV. 

 - "It is a striking fact, that a direct bounty on the 

 growth of silk before the revolution, leading to a 

 cultivation of it in Georgia and the Carolinas sous 

 to denominate them "silk colonies," failed to ac- 

 complish as much as has recently been effected in 

 almost exery quarter of the country by increased 

 skill, experience, and enterprise, in defiance of ihe 

 reduction of some duties, the total repeal of others, 

 and the absence of any bounty from the General 

 Governinenl. 



"Some of the alterations in the trade of particu- 

 lar States and cities in the Union, as well as in our 

 commerce with several couiiirics abroad, are re- 

 markable. First stand the exports from New Or- 

 leans. Thiscity wasnotwithintheboundariesof the 

 Union till several years after the constitution was 

 adopted, and the exports amounted to only two mil- 



lions in 1811 But in 1838, by having become the 

 principal outlet of so many new and flourishing 

 communities, the exports from it exceeded thirty- 

 three millions, or six millions more than any of our 

 oldest and largest cities or even States. In only 

 the first quarter of 183!l, they have in fact gone be- 

 yond eighteen millions of dollars. The immense 

 growth and fine central position of New York, have 

 aftected its imports much more than its exports. — 

 The latter were in 17!)1, two and a half millions, or 

 more than New Orleans twenty years after ; and 

 in 1811, were twelve millions, or six times those (.>f 

 New Orleans in the same year. But they have 

 since increased only so as to average twenty-six 

 millions during the last three years, instead of thir- 

 ty-three millions of New Orleans. Again ; Mo- 

 bile, a city not originally within the limits of Ihe 

 Union, and the seaport of a State not large e- 

 nough to be organized as such till thirty years af- 

 ter tlie Government went into operation, is now the 

 fourth in the Union in exports, shipping nearly one 

 half as much domestic produce as New York, and 

 more than all, whether domestic or foreign, of the 

 ancient prosperous, and commercial Stale of Mas- 

 sachusetts. But from South Carolina, her rich and 

 ample exports still exceed botli the two last, and 

 indeed all others in the Confederacy except the 

 two first mentioned Slates. 



"Passing to the imports, though New Orleans 

 has increased nearly four fidd in the last twenty 

 years, and presents an aggregate of fourteen or fif- 

 teen millions yearly, yet she is only the third, in- 

 stead of the first in the Union. Some other cities 

 pos.ses6 capital and facilities to exceed her in re- 

 spect to those, and to supply the smaller wants in 

 the lighter kind of foreign merchandise of these 

 great agricultural Slates, most of whose bulky ex- 

 ports more steadily seek the ocean at the mouth of 

 the mighty stream on whose banks and tributaries 

 they flourish. 



"The imports into New York now constitute over 

 one-half and indeed nearly three-fifths of those 

 within the whole United States. In 1802, they 

 were a little more than one fourth of the whole. In 

 1821, they had enlarged to but twenty-three-mil- 

 lions, while in 1836, they reached the astonishing 

 aggregate of one hundred and eighteen millions. 

 In^thc reduced business of 1838, they were nearly 

 eighty-nine millions. Besides these changes in the 

 imports, those of Boston alone among the old cit- 

 ies and States have indicated a continuance of 

 them proportionate to what they were in 1802.— 

 Those of Philadelphia, while remaining similar in 

 aninunt, have declined in their proportion to the 

 whole, nearly one half Those of Baltimore, les- 

 sened still more in both views; and those of Charles- 

 ton, Norfolk, and Savannah, in a ratio beyond even 

 hers. 



"But several of those cities have at the same time 

 exhibited an increase in their domestic trade and 

 maniitiictures, which has amply atoned for a 

 diminution in their foreign commerce, though the 

 details are omitted on the present occasion, as not 

 being so appropriate for explanation here. 



"The countries abroad, with which our foreign 

 commerce has been conducted, and the changes and 

 proportions of it, are matters of no little interest, 

 and of more immediate connexion with the finan- 

 ces. It appears that our exports, from being con- 

 fined during a colonial state, almost exclusively to 

 England and her dependencies, suddenly changed, 

 and^in consequence of the revolution and subse- 

 quent difficulties, increased to France, for the first 

 ten years of the Government, to about twenty mil- 

 lions annually, or nearly double their amount to 

 England. Since that period they have increased 

 with the latter to near sixty millions yearly, and 

 remained aboul stationary with the former, or at on- 

 ly one-third of that amount. 



"To Spain the exports are next in value, having 

 increased from four to eight millions without in- 

 cluding any part of Spanish America, now inde- 

 pendent, and classed separately. 



"But it is a remarkable fact, that the imports from 

 all those countries have remained stationary or de- 

 clined. Our foreign supplies, as above remarked, 

 have not increased but half as much as ourexports, 

 and those supplies are drawn by our enterprise and 

 new marts and tastes from a wider sphere, extend- 

 ing indeed, more or less, to almost exery portion of 

 the habitable globe. 



"Thus from England, those imports formerly 

 fluctuated from twenty-three to eighty-six millions 

 annually, and during the last three years averaged 

 only sixty millions : "While from France they have 

 usually been aboul lialf that amount. Some five 

 or six millions less from Spain than France, and 

 with China and India, about half as much as with 



Spain 



Connected with this subject, and further illne- 



